Resolutions?
It’s that time again. The time when we welcome the new year by
reflecting on the previous year (both our accomplishments and
shortcomings) and by making promises to do things differently. This
year I’ll lose weight and keep on top of the laundry and write 3 books
and the list goes on and on. And what happens to these little promises,
these notorious resolutions? They slide to the back of our mind in a
short amount of time. For some it’s a month or two, for others a day or
two.
I decided a long time ago that resolutions, filled with their good
intentions, are just that, good ideas that rarely, if ever, come to
fruition. What, then, can we do if we want to make some changes in our
lives? It was depressing to me to make a list of these things I wanted
to accomplish in the new year and not even make it to the half-way
mark. So I made some changes. No more resolutions for me.
Instead the new year is a time for setting goals. I know, some of
you are asking yourselves, well, what’s the difference? Actually quite
a bit. For one, resolutions don’t come with a plan, they’re abstract
things that are more like a wish list than a plan of attack. But goals,
goals are concrete, they contain steps and stages and are much easier
to obtain.
So you make a goal (to write a book), then you establish mini-goals,
or steps to achieve that big goal (for example, you set a schedule, or
you do the math backwards – if I have to write 350 pages and I want to
take the weekends off, then if I write 20-25 pages a week, I’ll have a
complete draft in 14-17 weeks). When you break your goal down into
smaller, more workable goals, then you know what you’re supposed to do.
Those “resolutions” give you an end result, they don’t tell you how to
get there. But working through your goals and setting up mini goals and
stages, you’ll give yourself an actual plan that is far easier to
accomplish.
